We all know Harry Potter dies, goes to this train station and uses his link to come back to life...right.
Well I had the strange feeling that I had saw that some where before and after talking with my brother I found my answer. There is a scene in The Matrix where Neo is shot by Agent Smith and dies, but comes back to life by using part of Agent Smith. That scene made me wonder if Jk had used that scene from The Matrix.

Any thought or comments appreciated

 

Chances are, that's more of a coincidence than anything else. It's more likely that JKR was more intent on drawing more parallels between Harry and Jesus through this. The whole Voldemort thing was there to do two things:

1) Give Harry a reasonable excuse for being able to return, and
2) Show the readers precisely why Harry was having Voldemort visions.

Well, at least number two. I suppose that the first one may be my own interpretation, seeing as it's actually been quite a while since I read TDH.

Also: I completely forgot about that scene in The Matrix. Interesting...

 

I think it more likely that they simply both were drawing on the same themes. A train station is a good visualisation for a crossroads - the point at which a decision must be made. Kings Cross represented this, as did Neo's subway station.

 

It most likely was a coincidence, but it gave an urge to ask

 

Did anything like this happen in Star Wars, seeing as the whole plotline was star wars style with different names and wizards instead of jedis.

 

Sort of. Can't they communicate through the force despite being dead?

 

Yeah, they can.

Some of them at least. The really good ones. Yoda, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, etc.

 

I've always thought Harry Potter was more the Lord of the Rings series-esque than anything else, although the Force and magic is pretty similar.

 

I think it's a coincidence.

A poster above has got me thinking about one thing though. The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that Harry is an allegory for Jesus, which pisses me off. When you first read the books, you might notice a Christian influence or two, but when you reread them, and really think about it, it becomes painfully obvious. They both had prophecies concerning them, and they both sacrificed themselves to save the world (keep in mind I don't actually believe in Jesus' divinity and miracles). I'm sure there's a lot more parallels that can be drawn, not only between Harry and Jesus, but also among many other HP elements.

I don't like it when authors try to push their religion's messages/doctrines/dogma/whatever into their works of fiction (fuck you C. S Lewis). HP could have done without the not-so-subtle messages of sacrifice, anti materialism and anti ambition, poverty = happiness, etc.

 

Well, one of the main things is that both Jesus and Harry Potter are fictional characters, but you're right. I've read a couple of essays that detail the allegories between Jesus and HP, along with others pointing out similarities between Egyptian lore and HP. They have tons of it. If we were really gonna go into it, people would start making connections between the disciples (etc.) and the other HP characters. Whatever her plot, continuity, w/e skills, that woman found a way to cram a shit ton of literary references and thinly veiled allegories into HP, but then the HP universe is sort of perfect for that kind of thing.

 

[Cue obligatory Tolkien reference].

To be fair, while Tolkien was about as subtle as a brick-in-a-sock, his motivation was arguably more political/cultural than religious. I suspect JKR's books (the early ones, anyway) were similarly motivated--she was writing for children, after all, who probably could use a dose of the anti-materialism message sometimes. I know my son could.

 

I don't really compare Tolkien to Rowling; in my opinion (a massive tolkien fan) Tolkien was a genius, the sheer thought that went into middle earth is immense. The film portrays LOTR as an action/fantasy film; but there wasn't actually too much action in the first two books.

For anybody who hasn't seen it:

 

I definitely wasn't suggesting Rowling was on the same level as Tolkien; I was just thinking more along the lines of Dementors=Ringwraiths, Gandalf=Dumbledore, etc.

But that really defies all argument otherwise, doesn't it... lol.

 

Those aren't complete clones, they're just fantasy tropes. Wise old wizard. Evil soul-sucking shade. Magical McGuffins. The final boss isn't really dead yet. Stalwart yet simple companion. Intelligent yet naive companion. Magical familiar. Ancient prophecy. Lost magical swords reappearing. Ancient bloodlines. Corrupt governments. I could go on.

Hate to get all post-modernist on you, but pretty much every idea's already been done. Being able to pick out parallels doesn't mean anything more than they're in the same genre. It certainly doesn't denote direct influence.

 

Tehan, you had to go and ruin everyone's fun didn't you? They could have gotten anrgy enough to try to sue for copy right infringement, despit not owning any of this, they could have claimed JKR ripped off the author of Naruto entirely, we could have had lulz. But no, now we'll never know.

Phooey.

[Serious: Everything Tehan has said is right on the money.]

 

Especially since JKR said in an interview that she deliberately wrote it that way.

 

She actually came out and said that? I'll bet Christians all over the world had a fit over the fact that she deliberately mixed Witchcraft and Christianity... And homosexuality. Good god.

 

How will they know? They Ban and burn all of her books. So unless they have some guy sitting in front of a Tv watching BBC all day or maybe a guy who surfs the Web. Looking for somewhat official comments on HP they should have nothing to do with it.

 

I agree that the SW references are painful. Think also petrification, and Snape being in love with his mother...

 

Not cool. That's a new low for her.